LEISURE & COMMUNITY

As with any thriving town or village, it’s the people that will form the beating heart of Northstowe. The community is already integrating with neighbouring towns and villages contributing to life right across Cambridgeshire, and will continue to do so as the development grows.

Northstowe will have its own unique community. Friends and families drawn together around the reality of town life with all the amenities and facilities they could need on their doorstep. Schools, including nursery and pre-school, healthcare, GP surgeries, pharmacy, recreation, community facilities and shops are all factored into one place. Being a town nestled into South Cambridgeshire’s surrounding rural community, some of these facilities will also provide services for other nearby communities allowing Northstowe to become an ideal hub and a destination for the wider community to enjoy.

Civic spaces will play their part too in the creation of Northstowe, allowing festivals, farmers markets and all manner of ‘pop up’ attractions to provide opportunities to shape the culture and community of this soon to be vibrant new town.

NORTHSTOWE ACTIVE NEW COMMUNITY

Moving house is exciting but can be a big life change. It takes time and effort to get settled into your new home or community and this can impact on your normal routines including when you exercise. This new project in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has been developed to help.

You may have moved away from your usual gym, exercise class or sports club. We recognise that in a brand new housing development these groups are often yet to be established, making it hard for you to stay active.

On the Active New Communities website there is a list of activities happening around Northstowe.

There is also a survey designed to identify your current level of physical activity along with the sports and activities you already take part in or would like to take part in.

You can even tell them if you have any skills to help others be active in Northstowe.

Active New Communities will be working with the Northstowe Sport & Wellbeing Group to set up new sports opportunities based on feedback from the residents.

Nature will never be far away for the residents of Northstowe and this will help to promote health and wellbeing

LIFE IN BALANCE

As well as being a great place for people to call home, Northstowe will provide for a mixed and balanced community with an accent on health and wellbeing. The new town has been planned to provide great spaces for formal and informal recreation in both sport and play. Landscape architects Randall Thorp have been brought on-board to look at the design of the five play areas planned across Phase 1 of Northstowe. Find out more here.

NHS England is providing continued funding for a ‘Healthy New Town’ programme over the next 2 years and work has been commissioned to look at the accommodation needs of older people.

As new residents move in, planners are funding a council community engagement officer to help new residents settle in to their homes and integrate with the nearby existing communities.

The Northstowe Community Working Group (NCWP) meet on a quarterly basis and have been personally welcoming new residents with a Community New Residents pack, including lots of information about the development, its history and transport links. They are now turning their attention to building a programme of activities and community projects for the coming year.

For further community information or if you would like to join the NCWG, please visit the Get Involved page.

Northstowe Healthy Living and Youth & Play Strategy

The Northstowe Phase 2 Healthy Living and Youth & Play Strategy (NHLYP) illustrates how Northstowe Phase 2 will be designed to encourage active lifestyles, independence and wellbeing, and be provided with excellent facilities for people to play, socialise, play sport, keep fit and have fun.

SUSTAINABILITY

Northstowe has the concept of sustainability at its heart. Both its open spaces and buildings are conceived to enhance biodiversity, creating green corridors all around that link to the wider Cambridgeshire area.

It will support a low carbon community lifestyle with buildings that use less energy, provide carbon savings and are economic to run. It will also have fibre optic connectivity, great public transport, cycle lanes, walkways and electric vehicle charging points.

Northstowe is dedicated to protecting and enhancing biodiversity by creating green corridors that link to the wider landscape and which provide a place for people to enjoy and relax.

In fact, it is the landscape and green infrastructure of the natural land in and around Northstowe that has helped inform the layout of the town, integrating both green spaces and waterways into the mix for people to enjoy and relax in.

Northstowe will be protected by environmental features built in, such as Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) used to manage surface water through a series of ponds, open swales, alongside roads and within green spaces, protecting the town from major flood events – well above the normal development standard. These ponds and swales will also feature as part of the open space provision at Northstowe that will provide fantastic leisure routes and trails for all to enjoy.

Northstowe Water Park

The Water Park at Northstowe is an expansive open parkland along the eastern site boundary providing a valuable green corridor and landscaped transition between the new town and the surrounding lowland farmland. The Water Park will provide essential water attenuation and flood alleviation as well as providing ecological, recreation, amenity and circulation functions.

Three large ponds dominate the park with fluctuating water tables and permanent water expected to be present throughout the year. Graded pond edges are shaped to create opportunities for access and recreation as well as providing a rich ecological environment of wetland, riverside and aquatic vegetation.